this could be blog ... by IBMer

Carly Fiorina naked !!!

2005-06-27T06:11:00.000+02:00

This is a lesson. Success lies in good marketing. I just wanted to pass barrier of 1000 visits ... and since it seems pornography and nudism are most searched web contents ... :-)))

And now back to You. You dirty bastard! Yes you, the reader. You poor pervert! Why would you want to see Carly naked anyway??? -Man, she's 50!!! That's half of century. yuk

:-)

OK, I'm following the "satisfied customer policy" so I'll sell you what you want ... no matter how disscusting that is.

So here's one fake photo (courtesy of http://www.ceoscope.com/carly_fiorina.htm)

Get a life! Don't let all your girlfriends' names end as .jpg

:-)

Apple Would Never Accept Dell's Offer

2005-06-17T09:31:00.000+02:00

hehehe. Just think. Not Think. And not different. (meaning, not as IBM Think and not Apple's Think Different - from their commercials).

Think as Michael Dell.

This would be different end for Jobs. Recently, as Apple switched to Intel processor, announcing end of POWER powered Macs, everyone were guessing if this means, we'll be able to run OS X on our PCs. And Mike Dell smelled a business case. He said to the press that in case Apple will offer OS X for distribution, they'll sell it for sure.

Never say never; but I'd say this will never happen. Success, not to mention stability etc., of Macs lies also in paranoid jealousy of Apple. They are a HW company. And they have to have total control over HW and SW so that it can be integrated together eliminating most of the problems from chaotic PC market.

This also gives them chance for A LOT higher margins than PC world could even dream about. PC-way of doing business would burry Apple in a year or so.

I'm just waiting for first MAC on Intel, to see what we'll get. Don't get price hopes too low, though. ;-)

Who says IBM designs boring products?!?

2005-06-14T23:27:00.000+02:00

MareNostrum - Barcelona IBM supercomputer - PHOTOS

Who says technology isn't art? Where are all those who say IBM designs boring products??? Put your weapons down, 'couse where IBM hits, grass stops growing. :-)

Looking at these photos makes me realise what a jerk I am for persuading my wife not to go to Spain for honeymoon. Sorry, IBM. You're the best, but this is home politics. ;-)

More photos (and photos posted here courtesy of):
Power.org - Photos

I'd probably enjoy this museum more than I did London's National Science Museum. Excuse me, I have to go bang my head to the wall for a few moments now.

:-))

P.S.: thanks to my friend from IBM, for the link. Dziekuje!!!

Intel Inside Apple

2005-06-13T23:11:00.000+02:00

Yes, they switched. And it realy seems IBM didn't know anything about it. Which proves one thing. IBM doesn't give a shit. Apple is only minor part of processor business.

But this move is more of a emotional shock - especialy to all those proud-to-be-Apple-owner fellows. They've been bragging for a long time now, that their boxes don't have those school-calculator-chips inside. They had POWER. Literaly! ;-)

But no longer. In my opinion, it's relatively smart move. For all the parties involved. Intel can celebrate simbolical victory, although their finance guys aren't realy jumping from joy as they don't expect enourmous profits. Apple can be happy, if they realy have a good and stabile OS version for Intel architecture (which I don't doubt). All they have to do is persuade fanatical owners of their perfect boxes, that this is good stuff / that their small soft enemies wont be able to run OS X on 3-times cheaper boxes. IBM can be happy, as it wont have to argue with Apple's empty-pocketed finance people.

Where is this going to lead? Is this one of those major shifts in computing market? Let's not forget, that Apple has just about 4% market share. So it's pretty much so market-shifting as Slovenia's exit from NATO would be to the worlds' geopolitical status. :-))

But it's interesting, though! Not to mention, that far more people heard for this fruit than for Slovenia!

Apple Matters: "http://applematters.com/index.php/trackback/384/"

Want to hear something market shifting??? -Dell moves to POWER!!!

:-)))))))))))))))

IBM & Lenovo produce their first tablet PC - ThinkPad X41 Tablet

2005-06-12T11:40:00.000+02:00

The new Lenovo released it's first notebook - and we can claim that this is also IBM's first Tablet PC. M$ and other tablet-players are probably pretty happy about it, as IBM's entrance to the market usually gives it some sort of business legitimacy and market starts growing.

As this machine is building on success of IBM's X-product line, which means ultra small, ultra light and therefore extremely portable machines, this should be a good starting point for sales: proven technology, design and advantages - just upgraded to a tablet level.

However, don't get overexcited and first think if this sort of machine is appropriate (and needed) for your (business) environment. Some people like to panic and claim that something like this means end of "ordinary notebook computing". No it doesn't. It's just giving users more choice.

I'm looking forward to getting this little baby on test ... till then, check out what CNET is saying:
ThinkPad X41 Tablet review - Notebooks - CNET Reviews

IBM Employee Blogs

2005-06-11T16:32:00.000+02:00

Check out blogs of IBM employees ...

IBM Employee Blogs

The End of Corporate Computing

2005-05-30T20:28:00.000+02:00

Interesting new theory from Nick Carr, author of Does IT matter? - check out the review
MIT SMR Article, "The End of Corporate Computing" - Spring 2005 Nicholas G. Carr. Reprint 46313

"The resulting industry will likely have three major components. At the center will be the IT utilities themselves Â big companies that will maintain core computing resources in central plants and distribute them to end users. Serving the utilities will be a diverse array of component suppliers Â the makers of computers, storage units, networking gear, operating and utility software, and applications. And finally, large network operators will maintain the ultrahigh-capacity data-communication lines needed for the system to work."

Nicholas has his own blog at Roughtype blog

IT doesn't matter is still a book that will make IT managers fight each other. Basically, Carr is stating, that IT itself isn't a competitive advantage - instead, the "old stuff" - good processes, fair-payed people etc. are important. IT is just a new driver for this stuff. He is questioning where the real value of IT is.

From my point of view, I'd agree with Carr. For example, if a corporation has huge investments in IT, but their core business processes aren't healthy, people not motivated ... they'll go down the toilet.

Every IT investment must be well considered - and aligned to the businesprocessesss - to support and act as a good driver toward successfulll business results.

Don't forget, customer satisfaction! :-)

Bill Gates's NEW BOOK

2005-05-22T19:47:00.000+02:00

President Bill is preparing a new book. So he's gonna tell us about the future again. I've read his books before and must say, they were great reading - a must-read for everybody interested in IT and beyond.

Can't realy wait to see what the God-of-Desktop has prepared for us. Check out BW's story:Further Down Bill Gates's Road

I'm realy wondering if and to what extent he'll write about Open Source. And offcourse, where this great visionare will lead us:

If we'd judge future just by His famous sayings, the world would long ago end up like this:

No offence, Billie. We like you. We realy do. Scout's honour. /do I need some counselling?/

Fiorina's first public appearance after being sacked

2005-05-19T15:55:00.000+02:00

Carly has spoken in front of a University graduates,- first time after getting kick-in-the-ass from HP board.

Fiorina's Commencement Address

Carly Breaks Her Silence

This one goes out to the one I love ... :-))

2005-05-18T19:49:00.000+02:00

Fellow IBMer has "accused" me (in joke, offcourse) that I don't believe in iSeries. CRAP!

iSeries, AS/400 is a beast. Very similar to what i-guys from IBM like to compare it: a cheetah.

Fast. Responsive. Ressilient. Adoptive. Self protecting. Self healing. Unfortunately, IBM doesn't find a realy good way to communicate that. To spread the word.

Ever wanted to have one machine capable of running your entire bussiness - from day one, when you're a one-man-band all the way to when you're lucky enought to join the big guys in the enterprise league.

Business solution in a box. You want to run applications in multiple operating systems? -iSeries can do that. -Symultaneously!!! Consolidation? -Not a problem. Logical partitioning? -Sure. iSeries was 64 bit while Bill Gates still thought that 640K of memory should be enough for everybody. :-)

If you're in IT, you're probably like everyone else - thinking how to consolidate your server and storage environment.

Check out the great iSeries Executive overview video:

Come to the real world. Become a player. To "i" or not to "i"? LOL

Pls forgive me

2005-05-18T19:33:00.000+02:00

Just checked my blog today and found out that it's been almost 4 weeks since my last post ... and visitor No. went up to 660 (according to statistics 64% first time visits) ... so readers have been good and I was just lazy. I admit it.

But, to say something in my defence, there was a lot happening in the meantime. I'm still an IBMer, even if my employment record says otherwise. So heart is still Blue (and will remains so).

You're probably asking why. Just one chinese curse-word /IBMers face goes from normal to angry/: LENOVO.

Not going into confidential details, let me just say I stayed with the big stuff. Serving as IBM Ambassador. That's the answer to all of those who were doubting my beliefs as being connected to "not biting the arm that feeds you". :-)

OK, this was a short disclaimer.

iSeries coming back to office

2005-04-21T10:21:00.000+02:00

A renaissance for IBM's iSeries? | CNET News.com

Can IBM's legendary iSeries line be the one to help oust the M$ Office?

According to plans, Workplace initiative should do just that.

Help clients be freed from Office's jailhouse and use productivity software that fits their needs - meaning, not paying for all those features that they are never going to use etc.

If it will match the budgets and get enought of ISV support, it might be a good move.

Does anyone even remember, when there were more office suites to consider? -Yes, people, there were times before M$ office! Now we have just freeware or bloatware ... :-))

IBM's BlueGene broken it's own record!

2005-04-07T16:11:00.000+02:00

IBM's BlueGene Hits Warp Speed

That's a computing beast: 183.5 teraflops!!! The race is continuing, but IBM is a sure winner in the world of supercomputing. By end of decade we can expect a petaflop machine.

For only $2 million, you can have a 6-teraflop IBM BlueGene/L at home. Nice baby for playing 3D-shooters, huh? :-)))

Nice part-time job for 52 days!

2005-04-07T13:22:00.000+02:00

HP's $58,000-a-Day Interim CEO

Sure, this is not a part-time job, but imagine working for 52 days and earning more than you can dream of?

khm, but in the end, you wind up having a blue-ink stain in your CV! :-)

HP with a new Captain

2005-03-30T15:00:00.000+02:00

HP's New Low-Profile Boss: ", calling directly to low-level salesmen to check on deals "

Hope he's got more balls than Carly. :-)

Finally got it: Apple iPod shuffle!

2005-03-16T14:33:00.000+01:00

Fancy little player finally came to my hands. Definitely worth it's 99$. It came packed in a stilysh little green box - and it's funny, how Cuppertino boys are able to make so simple things so fancy. Even this little music player is "insanely great"- you just have to love it.

I'll not write a review, since Cnet guys already did it (Apple iPod Shuffle review by CNET Reviews) and I have to agree with them.

-LCD screen? -I don't need it, as I'm using shuffle mostly in my car - connected through cassette adapter which works perfectly fine.

If you're wondering, which model to buy, here's my view:
- 512 MBs is more than enough to fit your music. That's about 120 songs, which comes to around 8 hours of music! -When will you listen to all that? I myself will cut it to half - 256 megs and leave some space to be used as flash memory.

- I'd recommend 1GB model only to people who want to fill shuffle with a lot of music (which they'll never listen to anyway) at once - and not work on playlists all the time. Also good for users who consider having an 8+ hours of music plus a 512MB of available disk storage.

All in all, iPod shuffle is a great buy. Stylish, small, simple and usable. Just like you'd expect from Apple. Way to go, Steve!!!

Green light and look back at 2004

2005-03-12T11:13:00.000+01:00

Factiva

Commitee on Foreign Investments in the US has finished the review of IBM's sale of PC division to Chinese Lenovo Group. Green light to finish the deal.

IBM Annual Report 2004 released. Big Blue is becoming a $100-billion corporation. Best positioned player in the IT industry. With clear path of Innovation for every clients' success.

What makes Apple's products "insanely great"

2005-03-12T10:24:00.000+01:00

Online Extra: Commentary: Apple's Blueprint for Genius

Research. Understand customer's needs. Teamwork. Think "out of the box". Design. Make it an icon. Only one more ingredient to make it a "wanted dead or alive" product: Steve Jobs.

Does anyone want to be HP CEO?!

2005-03-12T10:12:00.000+01:00

Handicapping the HP Hopefuls

In my opinion, they need a candidate who has guts to take over and fix the mess that's left at HP. And to bring back the pride to demoralised employees, management and the pissed-off stockholders.

It will be a tough job with a lot of sleepless nights. And some mind-shifting decisions to be made. Especially the ever repeating issue: to split or not to split?

Be careful what you write, they just might read it!

2005-03-07T17:33:00.000+01:00

Are Bloggers Journalists?

Lately, we are seeing more and more people losing their jobs and being held responsible for their blog postings.

My advice: take your blogging serious. It's not a game. Respect your contracts and don't spread anything you wouldn't with your company e-mail address.

If you can't help yourself, as being one of those pushed-down-need-to-speak-up employees, make sure you carefuly examine options on staying totaly anonimous. -khm, almost impossible! ;-)

Microsofting me / PART II: Geek in an elegant dark suit

2005-02-24T16:55:00.000+01:00

(Note: this is 2nd part of Micro$ofting me. 1st part: M$ing Me I).

Let's elaborate this one:

I. Geek

Motivated. Driven by an idea he believes in. Being apostol to his idea. Maybe somewhat fanatic about it. Explosive and over-energised. Hyperactive. -Do you get my point?
This is the guy who will get drunk in the evening, share his idea with drinking-buddies and suddendly figure out solution to his biggest business problem. Still drunk, he'll get to work and fix it. In the morning, he'll be hung over, but get an applause for overcoming the barrier.

II. Dark suit

Realistic. Analitic. Well thought-over. Strategical. Thinking in a long haul. Sun-tzu general.
He'll go to the opera or a game of golf after work and use the peaceful environment to think things over. Jot them down. Sleep it over. Repeat the excercise again. After a week, he'll ask for someone's opinion. Finally, he'll decide to communicate it on the next meeting. And he'll show up with well prepared slide show!

I'm prepared to put my money where my mouth is (or where my fingers on keyboard are), that this is the winning combination. Maybe not, if you're in one of those boring oil businesses or running your own burial-services company, but for most of businesses that's it.

I've met a lot of sales people in my short life. I met the ones who realy suck and the ones I'm trying to copy. Actualy, sometimes I copy both species - but trying to do the "mirror copy" of the ones that suck. Just look what they do and act totaly oposite. Learn on other peoples' mistakes. ;-)

Yes, I went a bit off the road now. So let's get back to M$. I don't believe they'll ever collapse. They'll stay here just like IBM: forever. But sure, they'll go through some evolutions and transform to adapt to new circumstances. They're this big elephant that's being attacked by thousand mice, just like IBM was once. There's Linux. Unix is still here. Apple is regaining momentum again. New areas of computing. New way of living. It's just a lot of fronts. And they're too big to focus only on one. We'll see what will happen next, but I believe M$ will always stay a big part of our personal computing. Although the only M$ product I realy like and admire is Office. It's just "competitionless".

Let's save this for the next round: Part III. Come back for it soon! :-)

Become a part of science research!

2005-02-23T15:29:00.000+01:00

Most of our computing resources are under-used and as such, they could be "borrowed" for good cause, such as health research. Check out how simple it is to lend your UNUSED computing power to the science.

BBC NEWS Science/Nature: PCs do thousands of years of work

World Community Grid, backed by IBM, is doing huge chunk of scientific work. It has more than 55 thousand members already!

Join today and be one of us good guys who support science in health research. Check WCG's homepage at
World Community Grid.org

Try imagine it this way: while your computer is on and you're not using it, it's actually useful - for YOU! God forbid, but years from now, you might get one of those currently uncurable diseases - and by then, with a help of WCG and Human Proteome Folding project, scientist will already find a way to cure it.
So, by running the WCG agent, you're actualy using your free computing power to help yourself, your family and the humanity. This might sound overreacting, but it's a good point to think about.

It's free. It's painless. It's human. One of those good things backed by IBM. It's WCG.

Carly goes to heaven? :-)

2005-02-21T17:28:00.000+01:00

HP CEO Carly Fiorina dies, and she goes through the usual process of
defending her case in front of the Divine Jury. It is not clear what
happens exactly and where things go wrong, but when the jury comes back
and the sentence is read, it turns out she is admitted into Heaven. So
Carly is filling in the usual paperwork at the HAO's desk (Heaven
Admission Officer): non-disclosure agreement, legal disclaimers,
non-competition clause, etc...

'Congratulations and welcome to Heaven,' finally says the angel. 'Go
down the corridor, first door on your right.'

Carly walks to the door, pushes it open... and staggers back. Through
the flames and behind the door, all you can see are countless devils
inflicting the most horrible tortures to screaming souls. She rushes
back to the Officer and waves her admission pass, breathless. 'Must be
an error, this thing here says Heaven!'

'Oh yeah,' says the angel, barely looking up from his/her screen.
'Forgot to tell you... we merged.'

HP looks beyond Fiorina

2005-02-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

HP looks beyond Fiorina | CNET News.com

Complete with videos. IBM's senior managers get mentioned a lot. I take it as a compliment - IBM has the right leadership. The right way.

Good bye, Carly!

2005-02-10T08:59:00.000+01:00

For a while, everyone was asking themselves about the HP's way. In end of January I wrote that Carly's fail is getting pretty obvious.

Sooner or later, it had to touch the Board and according to HP press release Carleton S. Fiorina was fired.

They put a picture with a word "Change" on their website

Analysts, stockholders, The (Wall) Street and others are already wondering if this means that possibility of breaking the company appart is the next step. One of the strongest Players urging for the big split is Steven Milunovich of Merrill Lynch (ML to HP: Time for a breakup).

This scenario is on the table - month after month. BusinessWeek's Ben Elgin is wondering if Anyone can save HP. As possible saviors we hear the names of Michael Capellas (former Compaq CEO) and even John Joyce, chief of IBM Global Services.

I agree with Ben: they'll need someone like Lou Gerstner, who "saved" IBM in the 90's, 'couse they're deep in shit, almost as IBM was in those dark 90's.

Separate i-B (ink-Business) from HP and we'll see what's left. As I wrote before, they'll have to regroup their troops (or what's left of them) and reposition themselves. Trying to conquer the Big ones (corporate market) and Small fishes (consumer market) at the same time obviously doesn't work. At least not for them. As some say, they are just loosing their focus.

BusinessWeek has a story called Where Fiorina went wrong - Walter Hewlett is probably a bit satisfied now - you know, that feeling when you can say to somebody:"I warned you." :-)

If interested, make sure you don't miss BW's The inside story of Carly's ouster!
"HEAVY BLOW. By November of 2004, HP's directors began holding periodic conference calls -- without Fiorina -- to discuss their CEO's performance. "

@ Carly: so long and enjoy your $21 mio+!

I admire her for being such a strong player in the "men's world" of IT. She certainly had some good ideas, but I'm pretty sure Compaq merger wasn't one of them. Let's wait and see what happens next - will there still be one or we'll get more "little" HP's.

e-business is the game. Play to win.

Well, a least now I can use this picture I found on web some time ago:

It's happening! IBM's cell chip!

2005-02-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

Well, finaly unveiled! The long anticipated Cell chip, a supercomputer on a chip actually, has been showed public!

Just to mention a few highlights of Cell:
- breakthrough architectural desing: 8 synergistic processors @ 4GHz+
- massive floating point processing capability
- OS neutral (!!!) - supports multiple Operating Systems simultaneously (!) - including Linux.

And this is HUGE. It's going to change our (digital) lives forever. Remember this.

I'm so excited about it, that I don't realy know what to write. So check out the links below (they were selected as something that's worth reading!).

Also, enjoy some photos of the Cell. We're witnessing another breakthrough in computer history, man. Be aware of that! ;-)

234 million transistors @ 4GHz+!!! ------- 8-way Cell!

Size comparison to a coin ------- Lisa Su at IBM's 300mm plant in East Fishkill

Opinions from PC Magazine: Intel's Albatross
But what I'm hearing is what many of us have expected for years. Sony is going to leverage its PS3 into a computing platform with many uses, including traditional PC functions.
Let's face it, Web surfing and word processing can be accomplished easily on a 2-teraflop chip, with power to spare. If I were Dell, Microsoft, or any other company in the PC market, I'd keep an eye on Sony and see whom it is partnering with.
It wasn't lost on me that IBM just gave up the personal computer business while continuing to work on the Cell chip and help with this new platform. You have to assume that IBM knows a lot about what's going on and got out of the PC business while the getting was good.
(comment: yes, IBM knows what's going on. IBM always knows whats going on.)

Wall Street Journal: Sony, IBM, Toshiba To Offer First Peek Of `Cell' Chip Design

BusinessWeek: IBM Discovers the power of one

IBM's Press Release

The world of (personal) computing and home entertainment will never be the same again.

Barrier broken! :-)

2005-02-04T14:56:00.000+01:00

Well, after one week of posting, the "magical" 100 visits barrier has been broken.

All my fans are welcome to come to our great ceremony which will be held in a phone booth at crossing of Blog and Web street at exactly 8PM CET today. Bring your invitations and don't be late for opening speech.

Our guest of honour will announce high-performing next generation Windows keyboard. Easy to use with only 3 keys (CRTL-ALT-DEL).

:-)))

Microsofting Me / PART I: How we all first "met"

2005-02-04T06:49:00.000+01:00

.

PART I - how we all first "met"

Micro-soft. As soon as I remembered, that I had once (probably bored and therefore web-avanturistic) reserved myself some space on blogger.com and decided to release my IT steam, I knew that one thing was inevitable. Microsoft. Or M$ as it's commonly named in most communities I'm part of.

I'll have to write about them. About HIM. Ever since, I was somehow fighting this must-do-task, but always felt presence of that little guy saying: YOU NEED TO WRITE IT.

As I think about it now, I'm not sure why all this avoiding. Probably I'm scared, that I wont write what I really want to. Or mean to. It happened a couple of times before, when I was writing for a magazine. When article was finished, and I read it, it was simply not what I wanted. Perhaps now is the right time to face my demons ... ;-)

Why now? -Well, this time I have unlimited space and no deadline. /spits in his hands/: let's rock 'n roll!

So let's start with a bit of a history: M$ first crossed my path about 10-or-more years ago, with DOS on old AT 286, running lightning-speed @ 16Mhz (in turbo mode!). Then I saw Win 3.11 CEE edition and I thought I've seen all that (personal) computing world has to offer. -Along with famous CTRL-ALT-DEL combo, which was, btw- invented by recently retired IBMer. (Again: Thank you, IBM!)

So by the time of W95 (remember that "worst disasters" picture which included Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Win95?) I became interested in what's behind it. One visit to the library (yes, back then, young people were still reading books - not e-books, but "analog" books!) and 3 days of active studying later, I got to know BG. William Henry Gates III.

Trey's biography. Instantly, he became my idol. For a while, I even forgot about James Hetfield of Metallica! ;-) (Disclaimer: sorry guys, but I'm far better with computers than with guitars. However my ThinkPad is full of your MP3s!)

Hope our librarian doesn't read blogs (if she's still alive), but I have to admit now: book contained some pictures of Gates, Allen, Ballmer & gang. I think I ripped all the pics out - one of them - showing Gates in his office back in '91 - is still on my old workspace (scientifically called "analog desktop"). It was even visible on a picture that we used in the magazine beside my column.

One day, I was in the library - it was actually a separated visit, nothing to do with returning Gates' bio - and found a book that changed and shaped my life. Father, son and IBM. Biography of Thomas J. Watson Jr., son of IBM's founder. So suddenly I knew there was someone even more significant in the (IT) world than Gates (and Jobs!). Somewhere between 1st and 5th re-reading, I fell in love with IBM. And, though this may sound VERY WEIRD,- still liked Gates. Reason why, lies in differences: while Watsons were very "IBMish" (does that sound too amish?), Gates was more .... eeeem /scratches his head/ ... - more of a geek? Yes, that's correct word!

Ever since, my opinion hasn't changed: if one wants to be a successful businessman (or a woman like Carly, LOL), he has to find best balance of both worlds. In other words: dress the geek in elegant dark suit.

Check out the PART II of Microsofting me: Geek in an elegant dark suit!

Beware of the Spammers! :-)

2005-02-01T17:48:00.000+01:00

Interview with a link spammer at The Register

Check it out!

Bloggers be afraid of link-spamming-hungry dogs! :-)

What caught my attention is how much they can make with it. Seems like a decent business, and only "partially" illegal.

Should we close down the "comments" option? No way, they'll get around. But, if they're not really making so much trouble (using comments to old posts), then maybe we shouldn't even mind.

The problem is that uncomfortable feeling - someone misusing your site. It's like you'd know there is a bug in your mouth. Not causing any harm, you can't feel it or see it. But you know it's there. yak!

But I don't get one thing: OK, so they're promoting all these PPC sites (pills, porn, casino) - and The Register found a guy who's a link spammer. I want to find and interview a guy who actually clicks on one of these links! Can't believe there are really people who click pop-ups for viagra, weird porn and stuff!? What's going on in those heads?

I can picture one of these as a fat guy in mid 40s, probably divorced (wife left with kids), sitting in his boring living room dreaming about having wild sex with a 18 y.o. blondie who will be crazy about him. His "tool" isn't working any more, so he's checking out viagra sites as well (or one of those enlarge-your-penis sites) ... during day he's working in his little dark office, has a bully boss and sweats a lot. Not many friends, he eats alone and regularly visits his mother who thinks he's a successful businessman.
In other words: potential serial killer. :-))

Correct me if I'm wrong - use comment section (no link-spamming, pls). ;-)

Newsreaders - faster, convenient news

2005-02-01T11:14:00.000+01:00

.

Following news on-line?
Are you into blogs? Writer, reader? I guess there are more readers that aren't writing than other thing around.

So if you're regulary following blogs, it's probably quite frustrating if it looks like this: open browser - go to favorites folder - find blog link - open it - read. Well, if you're following just one blog, that's probably not such a problem, but when you're reading 10 or even more ... ufff!

So I'd suggest you to use one of those simple newsreaders - such as SharpReader. Simple to install (very small package) and simple to use. Just check your favorite blog (or other site you're constantly visiting for news) and find the "feed" link - most of the pages have this - you'll recognise it by a small XML logo on the sidebar or at the foot of page.

Browse down to end of my blog and you'll see "Site feed" text in the footer - just copy the link to your newsreader and you'll have a lightning-speed access to updates.

What's better is that reader can get just a few couple of lines of update - so you can check if theme is interesting for you or not. Link to complete post is also available.

AND - not to forget - if your newsreader supports retrieval of the whole post, you can read the news/blogs offline - very convenient while you're waiting at the airport, during lunch or between meetings (not during, pls!).

For starters, check out the sindycation section of blogger help:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=697&topic=36 (also includes link to some popular newsreaders

I'm currently using SharpReader: http://www.sharpreader.net/

IBM & Intel friends?

2005-02-01T09:52:00.000+01:00

According to recent news, IBM served subpoena on Intel.
It's not asking about any code, but for all communications between Intel and SCO or Canopy about IBM, Unix or Linux. It's also asking about all meetings and contracts, business relations concerning above mentioned - past, present or future.

According to comments, some think that Big Blue knows something others don't.
I myself, can't comment on this one as I don't have any additional information yet.

Very interesting theory posted at: GROKLAW

IBM and Intel friends?
Authored by: SCO_DNR on Sunday, January 30 2005 @ 04:57 PM EST
“You don't usually have to depose your best friends... “IBM helped to make Intel the company it is today by picking the 8088 for thefirst IBM PC. The 8088 was just a step above the Intel 8080 or the Zilog Z-80. Other processors at the time would have been a better (Motorola 68000 or ZilogZ8000) from a programmers point of view. It is also true the Intel and IBM bothsupport Linux, but for very different reasons.IBM wants Linux to thrive because it allows IBM to invest more effort (readmoney) into higher profit software. Linux also allows the Power processoraccess to much of the same software as the Intel I-86 processors (at least onthe server side). Because of the cross platform nature of Linux IBM is hopingto move Power processor servers into the low end market with out the price hitof having to support AIX.Intel needs to support Linux to make sure that it can sell processors into allmarkets. Intel does not want to give up on any market. Linux embedded ishelping Intel push into new markets. Linux on the server side is pushing Intelinto higher and higher servers.But IBM wants to see the Intel IA64 chips dead, and Intel would like the Powerprocessors to go the way of the dodo bird. If SCO could hurt just IBM and notLinux, Intel may support SCO. If SCO had a good chance of killing Linux, Intel would not be too unhappy.

SkypeMania: VOIP rulez

2005-01-31T09:54:00.000+01:00

There are some smart people in this world. People who understand the Age of Information (or the age of IT?).

So they gave us things like Kazza, Google, the torrents, mp3's ... and now we got Skype!

A couple of months ago (or was it even earlyer? - in modern times, everything's running so fast!) I heard news about this great tool. My curiosity was hungry as a mad wolf in cold Siberia - so I downloaded it - to check it out. It didn't have many users back then ("just" a couple of million I guess). Since none of my friends had it, and I'm not realy the person who's sending out those "get this tool" e-mails, I forgot about it.

Up untill recently, when I was chatting with my brother on MSN and my trackpoint somehow lead to that voice chat button. As we're both quite crazy about all this stuff, we tryed to connect ... once, twice, ... and it didn't work. I thought it's probably becouse of slow connection - as I'm using VPN over dial-up at home (YES, there are still people with dial up ... especialy those who have fast LAN's at work and don't realy need constant connection at home!).

The idea of talking using the web somehow stayed in my mind and during work, I remembered this skype-thing again. Download, install, send instructions to Bro ... connect in the evening. -Surprise, surprise - it works perfectly fine!

I couldn't believe it - when conn. started, it was a bit weird and I noticed that it wasn't fast as it should be. Couple of moments later, it seemed as it just got optimised to my slow dial-up (45kbps) - it was just like talking over fixed line. With one BIG DIFFERENCE - IT WAS FREE - although I was calling to another country!

So we joined the 22 million+ community of Skypers. I'd recommend it to everyone who wants to talk to others for free.

VOIP rulez.

If you ever tryed one of those IM's, it's gonna be a piece of free cake. And if you haven't ... well,- it's still a child's play. ;-)

Check out the screenshot:

Get it at www.skype.com

Nice comment on Skype and VOIP at BW Tech Beat:
Tech Beat: Technology Blog on BusinessWeek Online

May good Lord provide us with more stuff like this.

Let our connections be fast,

servers always on (and IBM :-) ),

and may cute holly penguins keep those blue screens away.

@men!

:-)

Way to go, Apple!

2005-01-29T20:47:00.000+01:00

Jobs with Mac Mini

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf05/

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Steve Jobs is THE KING. Nobody can deny that. For me, he represents the most charismatic figure in whole computer industry. A legend. Pioneer. Icon of innovation.

I like Apple products. They are simply cool. Pure beauty. Every time when there's a new fruit announced, I'm wondering, what do their designers eat - or were they born to produce perfection??? :-)

Some may say I'm over-reacting, but I can't help it. When I visit Apple store or see one of their babies, I get that itchy feeling that says "just grab this stuff and run away with it!". :-))

Recently, on MacWorld, Steve announced Mac Mini. As usually, I was impatient to watch video of his Keynote ... and when I saw Mac Mini, I couldn't believe it. It's just so ... well, it's tough to use this word for a computer, but anyway: it so sexy! :-)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this little box will be the breaking point for people considering switching. After all, it has a "buyer-friendly price" - quite unusual for Apple (up until now). I'm going to buy one myself. It's going to be a great company to my ThinkPad T41! ;-)

What stayed in my memory the most is when Steve says, that "Mac Mini is BYODKM (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard and Mouse)". -Yeah, man: just pull stuff out of your bugged windoze PC and plug them into your brand new shiny Mackie!

Ofcourse the story hit the news instantly (even before actual announcement, which lead to some lawsuit threats by Apple!), but there's other side of the story: it opened a discussion about small form factor PCs (SFF) as well. They can be very useful for certain types of businesses (such as bank branches).

I'll get to this subject in one of future posts ... but check out IBM ThinkCentre S50 SFF and USFF - it measures just 4 (tennis) balls x 4 balls! :-)

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?categoryId=2580519&storeId=1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1

Jonathan's open letter to SJP

2005-01-29T09:59:00.000+01:00

Jonathan's Blog

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan

On Friday, January 21st, Jonathan Schwartz (pardon me for giving him a blog-nickname Schwarzy) of Sun has published an open letter to IBM (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan/20050121#an_open_letter_to_sam1) - urging it to port some of it's SW to Solaris 10 for x86 ...

... it's funny, that Schwarzy has to use a blog to beg IBM what to do. Actually, I just think he tried to persuade some people that Big Blue is getting back to its proprietary roots. -That's bullshit, JS - and you know it.

I like the fact, that he admitted, what a lot of people already know - it was a great sunny day, but now the sunset is coming. :-)

I'm wondering, why there was no customer response - at least I haven't seen any - with these same claims?

Maybe you should go to your customers more often and listen to them - you'll spend your working hours better that way. Instead of blogging funny jokes on the web ... :-)

However, I think you did a hell of a good job with that hot coffee, man! Java rocks.

Another personal remark: Sun seems that it just stayed a technology company. Hardware, Software. Mega, giga - bytes, -Hertz and benchmarks. Check the customer side sometimes - the value they get out of it, the problems they can solve and how this can drive their business. There are some great listening courses offered by IBM Learning Services! Don't worry, you'll get a discount ... :-)

Good comment on the story at The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/25/sun_IBM_blog/

"In addition, Solaris 10 isn't even shipping yet - on Sun's own servers! Sure companies such as BEA and Oracle have pledged to support the OS when it arrives, but can you really chastise one of Sun's biggest competitors for not rallying behind an OS that's not on the market"

... and...

"Sun's PR staffers, however, have been hounding reporters for weeks to talk about IBM specifically giving Solaris x86 the cold shoulder. They say at least 20 members of the Fortune 500 have asked IBM to port its middleware to Solaris x86. Sun, of course, won't call out these customers by name."

Carly's fail is getting pretty obvious

2005-01-28T22:25:00.000+01:00

Poor Carly ;-)

Ever since The Merger, HP has been under the spotlight. Investors, analysts, clients, competitors ... and most of them who know what's going on at HP wouldn't like to be in Carly's shoes. Even if she doesn't wear high heels ... :-)

It's going down, that's for sure. But, unlike most think, we can't blame it all on merger with Compaq. Half we could. It was simply clash of two different worlds. -Can you imagine merging IBM and Dell? -Yeah, I thought so! It's simply unnatural. Sure, you can merge stocks, capital, maybe even products (although HP wasn't quite successful at this either), but you can't simply merge people's philosophy. The way they work. Their business-slang. All the 3-letter acronyms. Impossible.

Going further, I myself would compare this as merging USA and USSR. Get real. But it's comparable. Not by size, but by the way they live their workdays. We can just wait (and read) while things are getting worse - slowly, but certainly.

BUT! They still have time to change the pace. Before they collapse. But there is a big decission to be made. Sometimes, HP seems like that Polly girl from Along Came Polly - indecisive and uncertain. And that's VERY bad for corporation of HP's size. They have to decide, whether they'll go "Dell way or IBM way". Position themselves. Currently they're just trying to fight both fronts. And they're weak on both corners. They have to regroup and fight one front. I'd reccomend to Carly some Sun Tzu reading.

Dell winning from commodity side (PC's, printers, PDA's ...) and IBM winning on the other side (servers, consulting, software). They need a fast change in the way they operate and target groups, otherwise they're gonna collapse like a house of cards. I'm witnessing it every day.

IBM & Lenovo

I admit. IBM's deal with Lenovo was "punch under the belt" to HP. It doesn't represent just business, but also a fundamental change. There were a lot of emotions in us, when it was announced. Especialy in PC Division. But we quickly understood this is good. It's the best for all of us. And there was this sweet feeling that came with it: there wasn't so much panic around it (also tnx to great IBM execution and communication!) - the concerned public focus was mostly on HP - what will they do now. Hehe, we're good and SJP is God. TJ's would be proud of you, Sam! ;-)